Too Late For Love
by Andromeda Lazuli
Summary: Ryou had only recently returned to Domino and something started bothering him... The young girl he likes acts differently around him and he doesn't understand why until he uncovered the truth behind her change of personality towards him and the others.


**~*~ A.N.~*~(**_Me = __Annie = Andromeda_**)**

**Annie: **Okay, here's the thing about this story... I don't own the show or the character's or the OC named **Matt Uraki** (_he belongs to my boyfriend ^^_), except the OC's that are mentioned throughout the story. This is my first time doing a one-shot with lyrics in it, so **PLEASE** tell me what you think about the story!

**Ryou:** Um... Can't you let them read the story first to enjoy it?

**Bakura: **I agree with Ryou but I feel bad that he has to endure this.

**Ryou: **-_- I thought you were busy with your precious assassin, Bakura...

**Bakura:** She had to leave on a trip with the Mutou girl again... *mumble mumble*Damn, photographer's job...*pouts*

**Annie: ***pats Bakura on the head* There, there...! She'll be back when they return, then you can be with your beloved assassin queen all you want. Okay, Bakura?

**Bakura: ***nods*

**Ryou: ***sighs* You shouldn't spoil him with your kindness, Annie... He'll try to take advantage of you.

**Annie: **I know better than to let him and all I have to do to get him to stop is threaten to tell Reiki. After all, she's the one he's attracted to and, if he wants any attention from her, he has to behave.

**Ryou: **Good point.

**Annie: **Read, review and enjoy everyone! ^_^_**

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**_

_**Early summer rain is green**_

_**It makes me sad, a lonely afternoon**_

_**I love and I'm sad**_

It had been about an hour since I saw her with her cousin and I was walking home in a dazed state since of how I had a feeling that we had drifted apart in a way since I had been away from Domino while I was in England. The rain patted down on my umbrella as my mind kept trying to find the key to the answer I needed.

"**Ryou… Ryou, answer me!"** I then snapped out of my state and looked at the spirit beside me. The Great Thief King Bakura.

"Huh?"

"**Did you even hear what I said at all?"**

"Sorry, Bakura… I'm just thinking. Do you think you can repeat yourself?" He then gave me an expression, like if thinking was foreign to him, then sighed.

**"My Ra, Ryou. I was asking you if you knew what's wrong with Kitsune Mutou. Reiki told me that she's been very secretive about something to everyone. Has she said anything about this to you?"**

"No, I don't know. But something has been bothering me about her and I don't know why…" I then looked down at the grass and sighed, seeing that the droplets of water on the grass reminded me of the shimmer in her eyes. I then noticed that Bakura was looking at me with a worried expression on his face as I still looked at the grass.

"**Something is wrong with you, too. You haven't acted like this since Kitsy and my beloved Reiki traded places with us in the Shadow Realm."** Again, I sighed but didn't look up at him at all.

"Can we not talk about it here, Bakura…? There's too many people out here." Even though I wasn't looking, I could tell that he was grinning like the madman he was.

"**You're hooked on that Mutou girl, aren't you, Ryou?"** I then looked up at him to yell, but something caught my eye and caused my voice to hide in my throat. This sight was Kitsune Mutou and Matt Uraki walking together under the same umbrella.

_**My warm thoughts…**_

…_**Would never reach her**_

They were standing really close to each other and laughing, the sound of her laugh was always so warm and sweet, like a mothers lullaby. It was hard to understand exactly why they were like that until I saw it. The missing glimmer in her beautiful eyes whenever she looked at me in the past but she wasn't looking at me… She was looking at Uraki, that Newtype who she was walking with.

Kitsy had looked at me like that many times before and now that gaze was toward someone else. Bakura then looked at them as well.

**"Well now, this is a surprise…! I didn't expect these two hanging out…"**

'_Why are they acting that way and why is she looking at him like she used to do with me…?'_ It was then that it his me when the two of them stopped walking for a second, their lips came in contact with each other. This sight almost made my heart stop and drop my umbrella.

What I had just witnessed was a terrible sight to me… Kitsune and Matt were kissing.

"**Wow, didn't see that coming…!"** Bakura stated as I was still frozen from seeing them like that.

"I think I know what she's keeping secret now, Bakura… … She's dating Uraki behind everyone's back."

"**Well, that's everyone else's problem since my Assassin Queen would never betray me."** He boasted while I didn't look at him as I watched the two of them walk away.

"Bakura… I don't understand this, but why did she have to choose him, out of all guys, to go out with…?"

_**I couldn't tell her that I loved her, my first love**_

_**Like a pendulum heart**_

"**Don't know, but your chance with her apparently is gone to someone else. Tough break, Ryou."** I then sat down on the bench after placing my jacket down, looking at the ground and already feeling something weighing down on my heart.

"I can't believe this… How could I loose her to that Newtype…? Was I just a passing crush?" Bakura then sat beside me while having an expression that was supposed to make me feel better.

**"We'll see what happens and there's other fish in the sea out there. Don't worry for now, okay?"**

"Yeah… I guess you're…" I then stopped as I remembered now about what Kitsune and Reiki had done at the blimp and what Marik had said to me.

"_That girl's very brave to make a deal with me, Ryou. She didn't even care about being sent to the Shadow Realm so she traded her soul for yours… So now, her soul wanders the shadows for all eternity!_" It was then that I now knew something that I had over looked over the years that I have known her. Every look, laugh and smile that I got from her was all given to me because of how much she had cared for me. I couldn't believe on just how stupid I was to not notice this before and now… Now I was paying the unwanted price of not acting and figuring her feelings out sooner.

I then leaned back and gazed at the droplets of water on the top of my umbrella as I sat there on the bench, reminding me of the tears that streamed down her soft, smooth skin whenever she would cry about something. My mind then started to replay visions of elder times I had spent with Kitsune and the others, the time at Duelist Kingdom, Battle City and a few others that dragged on in my mind. But the one that caught my attention the most was that of when I first had laid eyes on her in the school field on that small hill.

_**I saw you running on the school field…**_

… _**One afternoon**_

_**From far away, I looked at you forever**_

That was the best day ever… It was a rainy afternoon, just like what was happening right now, and she was taking pictures of the scenery around the school grounds. Her long ember hair streamed down her back whenever she stopped for a shot while it whipped in the air when she moved from place to place, her eyes seemed so full of excitement for the pictures she was taking while she seemed to be talking to herself, more like to someone since Bakura and me didn't notice Reiki there until much later.

Unfortunately for me when I went up to her and started talking with her while trying to keep up with her since she was moving like a buzzing bee, I had slipped and made a complete fool of myself as I started rolling down that hill and slammed face first into a tree and she had accidentally took a picture of that exact moment when I had collided with the large tree before running down and checking to see if I was alright. After the few moments of me and her talking with each other on such terms, Yugi had came and dragged her away. During that time, I didn't know that the two of them were related until only after the next day when I dropped by the card shop to see her helping them with a few customers and telling Mr. Mutou to keep off his feet since his back was thrown out of place yet again.

Those days were the best since she didn't know anything about Uraki and, apparently, her love was only aimed towards me. But I never really found out at all on how he got to be a good duelist when he was terrible in the beginning. Along with that, he played with the same kind of deck as she did, Spellcasters. It was then that I had an idea click into my mind and I looked at Bakura, a darkness filling my eyes from envy and wrath towards Matt, which made Bakura seem to look a little on the nervous side.

**"Um… Ryou? What exactly is going through that little head of yours now? Because you're starting to scare me a little with how your eyes look."**

"I'll tell you exactly what's going through my mind, Bakura… I'm going to make that Newtype pay for taking Kitsy away from me and take her back. Then everything will be the way that it's supposed to be again." I said with a tint of hatred in my voice as I lightly growled when I said his name.

**"But wouldn't that Mutou girl hate you if you did anything to Uraki…?"**

"I DON'T CARE, BAKURA!" I snapped at him viciously, like there was venom in my normally calm voice. At that moment, I started to feel like I was turning into Bakura by how I reacted to him without hesitation.

_**It's a warning dream, so it won't leave my heart**_

_**The color of the sunset sky is apricot**_

The wheels in my head began to turn as I wrote a letter in a different style of my handwriting so that no one could trace it back to me and left it unsigned. Hurrying over to the card shop and knowing that she had yet to return from being with Matt, I hid the letter amongst the mail they still had in the mailbox before grabbing their mail and quickly straightened myself up to seem like there was nothing wrong and I didn't know.

I then saw Yugi and smiled at him, only seeming like I had just got their mail for them to bring it in while coming inside.

"Ryou, I didn't expect you to come again. Is there something that you forgot?"

"No, I just remembered that I wanted to see if there was any cards that I wanted to buy. I also got your mail for you, it seems that you haven't been noticing that there was any mail."

"Oh, alright and thanks, Ryou. Normally Kitsy gets the mail but she apparently must be busy or something."

'_Yeah, something alright… She's too busy with that Newtype, Uraki.'_ I thought, but didn't allow my expression to change at all from the calm and coy smile. As I went to the card counter, I noticed that Bakura had already moved over to Reiki and was talking with her, along with seeming like they were going to need a room or go on the roof again if they continued to act like that.

Just seeing them like that made me jealous that they had each other, making me seem like a third wheel whenever I was around the two of them… As always. I then saw that Yugi was looking through the mail, opening up the letter that I had planted within the mess of paper and letters and a faint smirk traced upon my lips as I saw the look of shock on his face.

"What the…? Hey, Ryou? Did my cousin tell you anything about her and Matt being together?"

'_Perfect. He read it and now it'll come too far more in the long run once she comes home.'_

"No, she didn't tell me anything about this. Why do you ask, Yugi?" I asked with a confused look on my face, staying with Bakura for so long actually came in handy after all.

"Because it seems like she might be from what this letter says…" He replied, like a moth to a flame, as he couldn't pin the letter on me at all.

It was only a few minutes after the letter was read and shown to Mr. Mutou along with the sun starting to set that the culprit of keeping her relationship a secret and the two spirits were already up on the roof. Attention was then drawn upon her and even though it didn't seem like it on the outside, I was smirking on the inside.

"Kitsy, I want to ask you about something." She then looked towards him with a confused look on her face, not knowing exactly what he was going to ask while I did.

"Sure, what is it you want to talk about, Yugi?"

"Are you and Matt going out with each other?" Her face was then flushed over with a shocked expression upon her face.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Yugi?" Kitsune stuttered while she looked off into a different direction.

"You're stuttering and blushing. Kitsy, you have to be lying."

"No, I… I'm not lying. I just can't believe that you'd think such things, Yugi!" She panicked before hurrying up the stairs, only to be followed by her cousin.

"Come on, Kitsy! Answer me! Are you or are you not going out with Uraki! Tell me the truth!"

"What truth? Why does it concern you if I'm dating someone or not? HOW ABOUT YOU GO GET A GIRLFRIEND AND STOP PESTERING ME ABOUT MY SOCIAL LIFE? THAT WOULD MAKE LIFE MUCH EASIER!" Kitsy yelled back at him and with a smirk, I started to leave the card shop to allow the two cousins to argue, taking Bakura away from his assassin queen, who he was shamelessly making out with on the roof, and dragged him home as I felt triumphant that my plan was working so far where that I could plan out the rest of my plan to get Kitsy to turn her love back towards me once again.

_**Whistling alone on the way home**_

It was the next day that I had already had my plan figured out, taking Kitsune Mutou back wouldn't be easy but it would truly be a feat that I was willing to take. For her love to return to me once again. While I was walking back home from a trip to the museum, I stopped as I saw Kitsy in her usual casual attire, camera in hand, while she was taking pictures in the park like the few times that she's not working.

'_There she is… But I can't strike for my plan to work. I have to get rid of Matt first before I can take her back…'_ My mind buzzed as I watched her, trying not to say anything to draw attention to myself and I could tell that the millennium earring wasn't active, so she couldn't have heard my thoughts as they were said.

I then smiled as I decided to walk over to her and just as I was a few steps towards her, I stopped at who had suddenly came out of no where. The person who made me halt in my tracks was none other then the same Newtype that took her away from me, Matt Uraki.

With a faint growl escaping over my lips, I decided to walk passed the two of them like I didn't see either of them and over towards a bench. Hiding behind a book I brought with me, I watched as they talked with each other and look over the pictures she had taken. But right when they were acting all lovey-dovey, I felt sick to my stomach that they were being like this without even noticing that I was there. I could feel myself turn green from envy that I could tell that it was highly obvious about my feelings towards them being together.

I then looked up at the sky, seeing Reiki and Bakura were up in a tree facing a different direction then the scene that was playing out in front of me. I felt like I could just gag at their signs of affection towards each other and just when they were starting to leave and I was about to speak up to call out to Kitsy, I suddenly stopped like I did yesterday when they were leaving.

_**I couldn't even call out your name I would gaze at my captive heart**_

As they walked away, leaving me there in the park, I sighed and began to continue thinking of what I would do to get them apart and regain the ember-tressed photographer that had stolen my heart. I then looked down at the ground, watching as a stream of ants were crawling on the cement and in between the creases that were in the sidewalk.

_**I couldn't tell her that I loved her, my first love**_

_**Like a pendulum heart**_

Bakura then returned to my side and looked down at me, sighing as if to say that I was pathetic since I didn't have enough courage to tell her or interrupt her time with Matt.

"**You know what…? If you're really serious about that Mutou girl, then deal with Matt when he's not around her or his little brat of a brother, Tem. That's the best time to deal with this problem of yours, but I'm not going to help you any further and I just know that you're not gonna like the end result of what's gonna happen."** I then looked up at him, seeing his dull but serious expression and sighed myself.

"… You're right. I'll have to take care of that Newtype before I can take her back and I'm not going to allow my emotions to get in the way of any of this." I stated, my expression now darkening like how Bakura's would be like before standing up and dashing off. I could definitely tell about where they were going since of the direction of where they were walking.

He was walking her back to where she was staying with Yugi and their grandfather. And now was my chance to deal with him… Personally.

_**Just like flower petals on the wind…**_

… _**disturb the surface of the water**_

_**Back then, I'd write "love" and tremble each time**_

After Kitsy and Matt had reached the card shop and they had said their goodbyes before giving each other a little peck, I watched as Matt began to walk away from the door and head back towards where his little brother and him lived. Following him like a predator, I felt like I was going to kill him and I didn't pay any mind to the feeling since I allowed it to fuel me on about what I was going to do.

All that was on my mind was the plan that I had etched into my thoughts that I had concocted last night.

Forgetting about what he was capable of because of him being a Newtype, he suddenly dashed off because of how he must've felt that something was going to happen. Since he was dashing off, I followed quickly after him while I kept on his trail. He continued to run away from me while I knew that he'd soon have to stop to catch his breath, allowing me to have the chance to take him down so that he'd be out of the picture… Permanently.

_**It's a warning dream, so it won't leave my heart**_

At the time that he had taken a break to rest from sprinting, I used this opportunity to play the so-called concerned friend to get closer to him.

"Hey, Uraki. You alright?" Matt then glanced up at me, still breathing a little heavily from running and a faint smile.

"D-did you happen to see anyone following…?" He then stopped talking as I looked at him with a darker grin upon my lips.

"Oh, come on, Uraki… You actually thought that just because you've been careful that no one would find out about your little rendezvous' with Mutou?" My grin then vanished into a scowl as I glared at him now, my hatred and envy towards him bubbled up to the surface.

Uraki then began to start stepping back as I was approaching him with each step, wanting to fuel myself for the rest of the chase. It was obvious that he could now see as well as sense just how much I want him to disappear… If it was a possibility, I would gladly send him to the shadows myself since Kitsune wouldn't ever go near that realm again after Battle City since she's grown a phobia of it ever since.

"You stole something precious from me while I was in England, Uraki… And I'm going to take back what you took from me."

"Wh-what are you talking about…?" He stammered, not because of fear but since he was still out of breath. I started to chuckle at him at how he was reacting to me… Just the look on his face made me want to see him gone even more.

"You took HER affection away from me, Uraki! Before you even came into the picture, Kitsy had cared for me and now that you're in her life… Nothing has been the same and I want her back…!" Right then, he turned around and dashed off as to escape from me. Just doing that only delayed what his fate in this little game of mine.

It was as if I was playing my tabletop RPG games again and Matt Uraki was a weak piece upon the board.

_**I couldn't tell her that I loved her, my first love**_

_**Like a pendulum heart**_

As I continued following him, Matt made a wrong turn into an alley. Trapped like the sewer rat I saw him as and I was the cat that caught and had him cornered.

"Now you have no where to run to, Uraki… And I'm going to make you disappear so you're not in my way anymore…" I murmured, not noticing that Bakura was trying to warn me about some unknown factor that was about to emerge onto the scene.

"RYOU!" Yelled out a familiar voice, causing my heart to leap at the sound of their voice. I pivoted upon my heels and looked at the entrance of the alleyway and stared at the figure that stood there, breathing deeply from running. It was the only girl who had stolen my heart who yelled out my name just then…

It was Kitsune Mutou…

Her fiery ginger hair was slightly in disarray from running, a soft frost of sweat coated her skin and she quickly came into the alley towards me and the cornered Newtype.

"K-Kits…!" Right then, her delicate hand suddenly struck me across my face and sent me toppling to the ground.

"K… Kitsy…?" I whimpered slightly as I looked up at her, covering my stinging cheek but it wasn't my face that hurt the most… The look in her eyes and on her face was what hurt me the most.

"How could you do this, Ryou? I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!" She yelled in a sad and painful voice, making my heart sink in my chest, before she went over to Matt's side.

"B-but, Kitsy…!"

"No, Ryou… Don't say anything else to me at all. Actually, before you don't say anything, tell me why you did this to Matt?" Kitsune quizzed as she helped that damn Newtype up to his feet again and checked to see if he was okay.

"I… Kitsy I…!" That was when Bakura sighed from his place against the wall beside his beloved Reiki, expressing that he could give the explanation.

_**I saw you running on the school field…**_

… _**one afternoon**_

She then looked over at the thief, still having a hardened expression upon her beautiful face.

"Well…? Apparently since he can't answer me, you're going to explain it yourself, Bakura…?"

"**Yes. I'm sorry that he's such an idiot and a love-struck fool over you, Mutou. Jealousy and wrath got the best of him and drove him nuts when he saw the two of you in the park under the same umbrella… When he saw the two of you kiss, he snapped and tried to get Uraki here out of the picture since he believed that everything would return back to normal, like in the past, and you'd go back to him."**

"That's no excuse for doing all of this…! Even if Matt disappeared, life wouldn't be as it was before. First Seto Kaiba tried to break us apart because of how he couldn't take the truth and now this…? I can't believe you, of all people, would do such a thing!"

"**Told him that you were going to get mad…"** Bakura mumbled to himself, gaining a nod from his beloved assassin in agreement. She then looked at me; her lavender-gray eyes seemed to be grayer at the moment. That always happened when she got mad.

"Listen, Ryou… You can't just do things like this just because you can't stand that I'm with him. Ryou, you lost your chance at dating me when you couldn't even notice that I made my feelings obvious that it was like I had a sign expressing my feelings out loud. If you do this ever again to him, Ryou… …" Kitsy then was quiet for a second when Matt held onto her hand and smiled down at her.

"I'm alright, Kitsy… You don't have to start mimicking Aura now." She then sighed and closed her eyes, leaning against him as she seemed to calm down.

"You're right, Matt… Ryou, just don't do this again or else I wouldn't be able to really call you a friend anymore… … Seeing you like this isn't how I remember you at all and I just… I just can't stand seeing my friends acting like this towards my boyfriend." That made me feel like a sword was struck straight through my chest, her words stung even more then the look on her face or where she had slapped me.

"Come on, Matt… I'll walk with you to your house and call a cab to take me back to the card shop."

_**From far away, I looked for you forever**_

As the two of them started to walk away, I stretched out my arm as if to reach for her with no success. Just watching them walk away and all the things she had done brought tears to my eyes, unable to stand the outcome… Her affection toward me was lost and gone forever.

It was right then that the still air, and Domino City in general, was disrupted by the now falling rain. I didn't even make an effort to escape from its cold embrace as the water droplets mixed with my tears as I now began my journey back home with Bakura at my side, once again. These lingering feelings that I have towards her I knew would never die away, just creep into the hollows of my mind and heart since I couldn't let them escape me…

Now as we parted ways, I could easily tell that if Matt ever caused Kitsy any amount of pain or sorrow, that he would have to face me again and that would be when she won't be there to save him like this time…

_**It's a warning dream, so it won't leave my heart**_

* * *

**Annie: **YAY! I got it all down! ^_^

**Kitsy: ***comes out of no where* Is that what I think this is about...?

**Annie: **WHOA! WHEN DID YOU GET HERE, KITSY? 0.0

**Kitsy: **About a minute ago. Now, answer my question or else I'll post this rediculous video of you during New Years your sophmore year of high school all over the internet.

**Annie: **GAK! Yes, it's about that time now give me that video back!

**Matt: **Kitsy, you ready to go now?

**Kitsy: **Yeah, just had to torture the little writer a little bit.

**Annie: ***grumbles as they walk away* I swear, I thought I told her blackmailing me was off limits... Well, please review the story and I hope you enjoyed it. Also, by the way, the song's the english translation to the song **"First Love"** in the anime series **"Boys Be..." **and the part where Marik had spoke is a part of another one-shot here on the sight (_under Kyoko Miya_) called **"A Crystal Bloom"**.*smiles* Hope you read more of my work soon!


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